These things find me...

What can I say, these things find me.
Yesterday I was on my way to pick up one of my son's friends from a camp in Webster, a area in town that I don't spend a whole lot of time in. Mapquest had giving me really poor directions, and I was a little afraid with the detour I had to take I was going to be late. As we cruised down the street out of the corner of my eye I thought i spotted what could be a cool lamp in a trash heap. I had no time to investigate and we were on a busy street that had no shoulder. After we made it to pick up our friend, I decided to go and take a closer look. I had to actually pull into the driveway to get off the street and I jumped out, picked up the pieces and just threw them into the back of the car, all while trying not to embarrass my son. He is used to me grabbing things out of the trash, but I didn't want him to have to explain to his friend it's a regular occurrence.
When we got home I was very excited to pull all of the pieces out of the car and see that not only had I just found one amazing lamp, there were TWO lamps that needed to be reassembled. I wiped them down with Goo Gone and Magic Erase, There were a couple of bulbs broken in the sockets, so I carefully removed those and replaced with 4 small nightlight bulbs for each lamp. Both lamps still work without having to get into doing any repairs, one lamp as a crack in the shade, which I used Mighty Putty to fill the crack so it won't get any larger. I think they will go on either side of my sofa, but I will need to do a little rearranging first.
So there we go, these things find me. I sold 15 lamps over the weekend to lighten the load at the house, and quickly these lovely lighting beauties knew even though they weren't perfect, they could find a loving home with me.

Nessen Lamp

I keep bringing home more lighting. I can't stop myself. I may have a problem. I may not have enough outlets.
I found this Nessen swing arm lamp yesterday at the thrift store. $5 and a very long frustrating wait in line is all it took to make it mine. It still has the Nessen sticker attached to the bottom. The linen lamp shade and cord are what gave away its age, but the body of the lamp looks like it could have been made yesterday. I believe that's the point to modern design. The lamp still has the diffuser at the top of the shade, which helps cast a beautiful glow.
Doing a little research shows that this exact lamp resides at MOMA and was first produced in 1927.

Lights of my life

All of these lamps have been brought home since my blogging hiatus. I have a thing for lighting. I feel like great vintage lamps are easy to come by for a good price, and I've recently had to stop myself from bringing any more home, unless there is something really special about it.

The first is a little guy, that came with a perfect little shade made of a taffeta like fabric.

The second was found at an estate sale, and at some point someone had made this decanter into a lamp, and then painted some sort of landscape scene on it. The paint was flaking off, so I just used some striper and steel wool, to get it back to the simple glass. I also rewired it with a cloth covered black cord.

The next pair I found at a flea market for $2.95 each. I love them! They didn't come with shades, so I topped them with simple linen covered drum shades.

This isn't the greatest shot, but this came from the basement of an estate sale, its some kind of super heavy work light. I had been hoping to come across an industrial light on the cheap, and when this was found for $10, but was too heavy to cart around the rest of the sale, I gave my 4yr old a sucker, and told him to guard my lamp.(bribes always work). It is currently being used as a grow light for all of my succulents that were seeking shelter for the winter.

This sweet guy was also bought at an estate sale, and I feel in love because of 1.) the color 2.)the leaf cut outs 3.) the finial is a ceramic leaf. It wasn't in good shape, besides the ceramic having no chips, so I rewired it, repaint the base black, and added the burlap shade.

This monster was found at a thrift store, its super heavy. I almost squealed when I found it and for $10, it was mine. I also added a modern drum shade, made of linen. I feel that unless a vintage shade has some special quality to it, its best to update with a modern one, and it keeps everything looking modern, and not dated. That's just me, I'm not a purist.

This little cypress knee lamp came from some sale, but I'm having a hard to remembering which one, or what I paid. Its not real big, and super light, and I was having a hard time finding a shade that was the right size, and shape so that it wouldn't cause the lamp to topple over. I finally found this perfect one at the goodwill for two bucks, and I loved the matte black with the shiny gold interior. I think these pieces were made from each other. I really can't tell if the shade is vintage or not, but that's the great thing about modern design.

And last, but not least, this behemoth, Is one that I just made myself. I had seen a huge vintage decanter lamp at Anthropologie, That I loved, but in no way could pay $495 for it. So this is my own rendition. I found this carboy in an alley, and picked it up, since I had never seen such a large one before. We have a few of the 5 gallon ones, but I think this is probably 10 gallons. I used a cork in the opening, used one of those lamp making kits from the hardware store, I had a beautiful brass acorn pull socket made by Hubbell, and then wired it with another black cloth covered cord.I also took a old drum shade and covered it with black burlap,which was a simple way to update this also huge shade. I'm super happy with how it turned out, and its now one of a kind.
These are just the lamps on the main level of my home. We live in an old house, and have very few outlets, trust me, if there were more outlets, I'd have more lamps.

Danish modern lamps

We picked up these Danish lamps yesterday at the salvation army. I thought the pricing was a little high, marked $9.99 a piece, but the current sale was 50% off electronics, so a deal was had at about $5 each. They have modern fittings and cords, and I believe that they are dated '92. They are very similar in design, yet the differences let me know they are handmade. Both lamps are signed, and still have stickers in tact that read, Made in Denmark. I can't find anything on the web about the artist, but I'm sure its because I'm not sure of the signature. If anyone can steer me in the right direction, I would appreciate it.

( I don't want to sound cheap when I say the price was a little high, and if these were at a dealers, they would have been a lot higher. I believe as thrifting is becoming more popular, the thrift stores are hiking up their prices, and most don't know the difference between the lamps I bought and lamps from Target.)

* I am also still trying to work on my photography, if you have any suggestions i would love to hear them, try to think of these pics as product shots. I'm trying to still go for something a little more interesting, not just a bright light and a black velvet backdrop.

Luxo Lamp

I recently found this Luxo lamp at our Habitat for Humanity Restore. I was in looking for a small vintage medicine cabinet and with no luck, on my way out I spotted this lonely guy. Amongst all of the outdated lighting fixtures, there he sat, his cord had been cut. I then spotted the mounting bracket, and thought if the price was right I would give it a go.
Two bucks is all it took, and a look of sympathy from the cashier.
I brought him home and did a little cleaning, and then he went to the doomed basement. That is where most of my unfinished projects sit collecting dust, making me feel bad every time I go to switch out a load of laundry.
Well, today was his day. I already had a cord and some time on my hands, so I set to work. This project was a little harder than others due to the cord running through the whole length of the lamp in two long sections. It took a little while for me to fish the cord through, but still was maybe just a 20 min. project.
I'm not sure where exactly he will end up, but for now he is enjoying the view, and is no longer stuck in the basement with the rest of the rejects.

Lamp

The hanging lamp in the picture on the left caught my eye, and after taking a second look, I own that lamp. My lamp is a table lamp, and I found it at a resale shop about 6 years ago. I fell in love with it and had never seen another one like it.
My lamp at this point is lighting a corner of my friend Trish's living room, but I wanted to save this picture from a sneak peek from design*sponge.